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WAR MESSAGE 
AND FACTS BEHIND IT 



DELIVERED BEFORE CONGRESS APRIL 2, 1917 



WITH ANNOTATIONS, GIVING THE LEADING FACTS ON WHICH THE 

RUPTURE WITH GERMANY WAS DEVELOPED, THE ISSUES IN 

INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND CONTRASTING THE 

SPIRIT OF PRUSSIANISM AND AMERICANISM 



Published by the Committee on Public Information, George Creel, Chairman 




" The wrongs against which we now array ourselves are 
no common Wrongs" 

"The world must be made safe for democracy" 

"The right is more precious than peace" 






WASHINGTON ! GOVERNMENT PRINTINO OFFICE \ I0I7 



. Aa 

Copy &, 



0. of Di 
1UN 13 191/ 









FOREWORD 



THE "War Message" of President Wilson, delivered before Congress on April 2d, 1917, voices 
the best ideals and aspirations of the American people. It sets forth in language of dignity 
and moderation, but with unmistakable indignation and emphasis, the grievous wrongs which 
have made the United States take up arms against Germany. It makes very plain, even to the 
hitherto unconvinced, why at the present general crisis it is the duty of all good Americans to 
enter thi3 war, "that the world may be made safe for democracy." 

In other words, Mr. Wilson's message is the best possible preparation for all loyal Americans 
who are studying the causes and justification for the present war, and who are trying to discover 
the proper mental attitude they themselves should take toward the personal part which they may 
be called to play in the struggle. 

Nevertheless, although the President was speaking in general to all good Americans, he was 
addressing, for the moment, Congress in particular. Now men at Washington, devoting all 
their time to public affairs, and most of them favored by long residence there and by special oppor- 
tunities for information, did not need to be told of the many things which were not so obvious to 
even very intelligent citizens at home — at least unless the latter were willing to spend consider- 
able time in various forms of investigation. Consequently Mr. Wilson speaks of a good many 
matters that need amplifying details if they are to be entirely clear, and he draws a number of 
inferences, very sound indeed, but again sometimes not self-explanatory to busy men and women. 
Also, here and there, he contrasts the American and Prussian political philosophy and methods of 
doing things in a way that would become even more convincing if he had been allowed time to 
enter into specific details. Solemn official promises made only to be broken, conspiracies to burn 
and blow up American industries, to hamper our manufactures and cripple our Government by 
strikes and riots, spies in every center of political and industrial activity, plans made on American 
soil and financed by German funds to dynamite canals, bridges, and munition factories in Canada, 
invitations to Mexico in times of peace to join with Germany in dismembering our Union, have 
led people and President alike to see submarine warfare as but a more flagrant expression of a 
German state policy running amuck in absolute disregard of every sense of national and inter- 
national morals and decency and callous to the claims of common humanity. 

A military autocracy astride the ruins of Europe and dominant on the seas by virtue of an 
arm that both serves and reveals its ambitions and irresponsibility has forced America to accept 
its challenge. A new Monroe Doctrine must be defended on the pathways of the seas and in the 
fields of Flanders if the Western World is to be preserved as the citadel of a free-developing, 
forward-looking democracy. 

This annotated copy of the President's message has been prepared in the hope that it may make 
clearer the spirit and the facts back of a decision so momentous. 

Many of the facts are very familiar to most Americans, but the effort has been to bring 
together in one place the chief lines of evidence which made Mr. Wilson say that he felt it his duty 
to urge Congress to declare that "the recent course of the German Government to be in fact nothing 
less than war against the United States." Very many of the documents quoted in these notes 
have the highest official validity, and almost none of the facts mentioned are capable of dispute 
by any fair-minded person. Taken all in all, these facts, supporting the message, and many more 
that of course could be added, constitute something like "the case for America against Germany," 
and Americans after examining this case may rest well assured that their cause will be justified by 
the calm, impartial verdict of later-day history. 

The plan and much of the work are due to Prof. William Stearns Davis, of the history 
department of the University of Minnesota. He was very materially assisted by his colleagues, 
Prof. C. D. Allin and Dr. Wm. Anderson. Whether this evidence is valid can be tested by 
anybody with access to a good public library, for no secret documents have been used. The anno- 
tations represent a wholly volunteer service on the part of competent and patriotic scholars. 

The Committee on Public Information has had the assistance of the National Board for His- 
torical Service in editing the manuscript. 

The Committee believes that pending the appearance of a more elaborate and official Govern- 
ment statement, the publication of this annotated copy of the President's address will serve a real 
national purpose. 

For the Committee on Public Information. 

GUY STANTON FORD, 
Director of the Division on Civic and Educational Cooperation. 



99650—17 






THE WAR MESSAGE 



DELIVERED BY PRESIDENT WILSON BEFORE THE UNITED STATES 

CONGRESS ON APRIL 2, 1917. 



Gentlemen of the Congress: 

I have called the Congress into extraordinary 
session because there are serious, very serious, 
choices of policy ' to be made, and made im- 
mediately, which it is neither right nor con- 
stitutionally permissible 2 that I should assume 
the responsibility of making. 

1 There had been only two other periods in the history of the 
country equally serious — 1776 and 1861. Nobody can pretend 
that there have been any other crises in American history (barring 
the Revolution and the Civil War) when so much that citizens of 
this country count dear has been at stake. The War of 1812, the 
Mexican and Spanish Wars seem as child's play beside the present 
exigency. Now, as this message makes clear, the very liberties of 
the world and the possibilities of peaceful democracies are at stake. 
If Germany should win this war, and thus become supreme on land 
and sea, the very existence of free democracies would be imperiled. 

2 President Wilson had the sworn duty to lay the facta before 
Congress and recommend to it the needful action. The Constitu- 
tion of the United States prescribes his duties in such emergencies. 

It is worthy of note that the Constitution lays this duty and 
power of declaring war directly upon Congress, and that it can 
not be evaded by Congressmen by any referendum to the voters, 
for which not the slightest constitutional provision is made. 

Congress performed this duty by voting on the war question as 
requested. The vote of the Senate was 82 to 6 for war; of the 
House 373 to 50. Such comparative unanimity upon so momen- 
tous a question is almost unparalleled in the history of free nations. 

On the 3d of February last I officially laid 
before you the extraordinary announcement of 
the Imperial German Government, that on and 
after the 1st day of February it was its purpose 
to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity 
and use its submarines to sink every vessel 
that sought to approach either the ports of 
Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts 
of Europe or any of the ports controlled by the 
enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean. 3 
That had seemed to be the object of the German 
submarine warfare earlier in the war, but since 
April of last year the Imperial Government 
had somewhat restrained the commanders of 



its undersea craft, in conformity with its 
promise, then given to us, 4 that passenger 
boats should not be sunk, and that due warning 
would be given to all other vessels which its 
submarines might seek to destroy, when no 
resistance was offered or escape attempted, 
and care taken that their crews were given at 
least a fair chance to save their lives in their 
open boats. The precautions taken were 
meager and haphazard enough, as was proved 
in distressing instance after instance in the 
progress of the cruel and unmanly business, but 
a certain degree of restraint was observed. 5 

3 The German Chancellor in announcing this repudiation of all 
his solemn pledges in the Imperial Parliament (Reichstag), on 
January 31, frankly admitted that this policy involved "ruthless- 
ness" toward neutrals. "When the most ruthless methods are 
considered the best calculated to lead us to victory and to a swift 
victory * * * they must be employed. * * * The mo- 
ment has now arrived. Last August [when he was, as he himself 
here admits, allowing the American people to believe that in re- 
sponse to its protest he had laid aside such ruthless methods] the 
time was not yet ripe, but to-day the moment has come when we 
can undertake this enterprise." 

4 The broken Sussex pledge. On May 4, 1916, the German Gov- 
ernment, in reply to the protest and warning of the United States 
following the sinking of the Sussex, gave this promise: That " mer- 
chant vessels both within and without the area declared a naval 
war zone shall not be sank without warning, and without saving 
human lives, unless the ship attempt to escape or offer resistance.'' 

Germany added, indeed, that if Great Britain continued her 
blockade policy, she would have to consider "a new situation." 

On May 8, 1916, the United States replied that it could not 
admit that the pledge of Germany was "in the slightest degree 
contingent upon the conduct of any other Government" (i. e., on 
any question of the English blockade). To this Germany made 
no reply at all, and under general diplomatic usage, when one 
nation makes a statement to another, the latest statement of the 
case stands as final unless there is a protest made. 

The promise made by Germany thus became a binding 
pledge, and as such was torn up with other "scraps of paper" 
by the German "unlimited submarine warfare" note of January 
31, 1917. 

6 As to the proper usages in dealing with merchant vessels in 
war, here are the rules laid down some time ago for the American 

5 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAR MESSAGE. 



Navy (a fighting navy, surely), and these rules hardly differed in 
other navies, including the Russian and Japanese: 

United States Naval War Code, on treatment of merchant vessels 
stopped or captured by American men-of-war (1900 ed., p. 48): 

"The personnel of a merchant vessel captured as a prize are en- 
titled to their personal effects. 

"All passengers not in the service of the enemy, and all women 
and children on board such vessels, should be released and landed 
at a convenient port at the first opportunity. 

"All persons in the naval service of the United States who pillage 
or maltreat in any manner any person found on board a mer- 
chant vessel captured as a prize shall be severely punished." 

United States Naval War College, International Law Topics, 
1905, page 6: "If a seized neutral vessel can not for any reason be 
brought into court for adjudication it should be dismissed." 

United States Naval War Code, on safety required for persons 
on a captured vessel (United States Naval War College, Inter- 
national Law Topics, 1913, p. 165): "The destruction of a vessel 
which has surrendered without first removing its officers and crew 
would be an act contrary to the sense of right which prevails even 
between enemies in time of war." 

And also Lawrence (standard authority on international law), 
International Law, page 406: "It is better for a naval officer to 
release a ship as to which he is doubtful than to risk personal 
punishment and international complications by destroying inno- 
cent neutral property." 

The new policy has swept every restriction 
aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their 
flag, their character, their cargo, their destina- 
tion, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to 
the bottom without warning and without 
thought of help or mercy for those on board, 
the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those 
of belligerents. Even hospital ships and ships 
carrying relief to the sorely bereaved and 
stricken people of Belgium, 6 though the latter 
were provided with safe conduct through the 
proscribed areas by the German Government 
itself and were distinguished by unmistakable 
marks of identity, have been sunk with the 
same reckless lack of compassion or of principle. 

6 Mr. Wilson was undoubtedly thinking of the cases of the British 
hospital ships Asturias sunk March 20, and the Gloucester Castle. 
These vessels had been sunk although protected by the most 
solemn possible of international compacts. The Germans seem to 
have acknowledged the sinking of the Asturias and to have regarded 
their feat with great complacency. Somewhat earlier in the war 
the great liner Britannic had been sunk while in service as a hospital 
ship, and the evidence seems to be it was torpedoed by a U-boat, 
although the proof here is not conclusive. Since this message was 
written the Germans have continued their policy of murdering more 
wounded soldiers and their nurses by sinking more hospital ships. 
The Belgian relief ships referred to were probably the Camilla, 

Trevier, and the Feistein, but most particularly the large Norwegian 
steamer Slorstad, sunk with 10,000 tons of grain for the starving 
Belgians. Besides these sinkings, two other relief ships — the 

Tunisia and the Haelen — were attacked unsuccessfully. 

I was for a little while unable to believe that 
such • things would in fact be done by any 
Government that had hitherto subscribed to 



humane practices of civilized nations. 7 Inter- 
national law had its origin in the attempt to set 
up some law which would be respected and 
observed upon the seas, where no nation had 
right of dominion and where lay the free high- 
ways of the world. By painful stage after 
stage has that law been built up with meager 
enough results, indeed, after all was accom- 
plished that could be accomplished, but always 
with a clear view, at least, of what the heart and 
conscience of mankind demanded. 

7 No nation assuredly has made prouder claims than Germany to 
a superior "kultur," or made louder assertions of its desire to vindi- 
cate "the freedom of the seas." 

This minimum of right the German Govern- 
ment has swept aside under the plea of retalia- 
tion and necessity and because it had no weap- 
ons which it could use at sea except these, 
which it is impossible to employ, as it is em- 
ploying them, without throwing to the wind all 
scruples of humanity or of respect for the 
understandings that were supposed to underlie 
the intercourse of the world. 

I am not now thinking of the loss of property 
involved, immense and serious as that is, but 
only of the wanton and wholesale destruction 
of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, 
and children, engaged in pursuits which have 
always, even in the darkest periods of modern 
history, 8 been deemed innocent and legitimate. 
Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful 
and innocent people can not be. The present 
German submarine warfare against commerce 
is a warfare against mankind. 

8 Mr. Wilson could have gone further back than "modern 
history. " 

Even in the most troubled period of the Middle Ages there was 
consistent effort to spare the lives of nonbelligerents. Thus in 
the eleventh century not merely did the church enjoin the 
"truce of God" which ordered all warfare to cease on four days 
of the week, but it especially pronounced its curse upon those 
who outraged or injured not merely clergymen and monks, but 
all classes of women. We also have ordinances from this "dark 
period" of history forbidding the interference with shepherds 
and their flocks, the damaging of olive trees, or the carrying off 
or destruction of farming implements. All this at a period when 
feudal barons are alleged to have been waging their wars with 
unusual ferocity. 

Contrast also with the German usages this American instance: 

On May 12, 1898, Admiral Sampson with the American fleet 
appeared before San Juan, P. R., and conducted a reconnoissance 
in force to see if Cervera's squadron was in the port, but he did 
not "subject the city to a regular bombardment" because that 
"would have required due notice" for the removal of the women, 
children, and the sick. He did this notwithstanding the fact 
that a sudden attack, well driven home, would probably have 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAK MESSAGE. 



given him the city. In the attack on the forts alone, which he 
actually made, his ship captains were carefully charged to avoid 
hitting the Spanish military hospital. (See H. Doc. No. 12, 55th 
Cong., 3d sess., p. 368.) 

No one certainly has ever accused the American Navy of 
"hitting soft" or of being unwilling to wage the most strenuous 
kind of honorable warfare. 

It is a war against all nations. American 
ships have been sunk, 9 American lives taken, 10 
in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to 
learn of, but the ships and people of other 
neutral and friendly nations 11 have been sunk 
and overwhelmed in the waters in the same 
way. There has been no discrimination. 

American vessels sunk by submarines following German decree 
of ruthless submarine policy, Jan. 31, 1917. 

Following eight or more American vessels which had been sunk 
or attacked earlier, in most cases in contravention to international 
law, these ships also had been sunk following the repudiation of 
her pledges by Germany : 

February 3, 1917, Eousatonic. 

February 13, 1917, Lyman M. Law. 

March 16, 1917, Vigilancia. 

March 17, 1917, City of Memphis. 

March 17, 1917, Illinois. 

March 21, 1917, Ecaldton (claimed to have been sunk off Dutch 
coast, and far from the so-called "prohibited zone.") 

April 1, 1917, Aztec. 

March 2, 1917, Algonquin. 

Furthermore, no American should forget the sinking of the 
William P. Frye on January 28, 1915, by a German raider. This 
act under normal circumstances would be a casus belli. The 
raider, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich, then impudently took refuge in 
an American port. 

10 American lives lost on the ocean dming the war. (See Cong. 
E«c, 65th Cong., 1st sess., p. 1006.) 

American lives have been lost during the sinking of at least 20 
vessels, whereof 4 were American, 1 Dutch, and 1 Norwegian. 
In one or two cases the vessel tried to escape and made resist- 
ance, and the loss of life was possibly excusable for the Germans. 
In the bulk of the cases the destruction was without fair warning 
and without reasonable effort to give the passengers and crew 
chance to escape. 

Among the more flagrant cases were: 

May 7, 1915, Lusitania, 114 Americans lost. 

August 19, 1915, Arabia, 3 Americans lost. 

September 4, 1915, Eesperian, 1 American lost. 

October 2S, 1916, Marina, 8 Americans lost. 

December 14, 1916, Russian, 17 Americans lost. 

February 26, 1917, Laconia, 8 Americans lost. 

March 16, 1917, Vigilancia, 5 Americans lost (United States). 

March 21, 1917, Ecaldton, 7 Americans lost (United States). 

April 1, 1917, Aztec, 28 Americans lost (United States). 

Some on Aztec probably not American citizens, although she was 
a regular American ship. 

In all, up to declaration of war by us, 226 American citizens, 
many of them women and children, had lost their lives by the 
action of German submarines, and in most instances without the 
faintest color of international right. 

11 The Norwegian Legation at London has announced that during 
February and March, 1917, 105 Norwegian vessels of over 228,000 
tons have been sunk, and 106 persons thereon killed, and 222 
are missing. 



On February 22, 1917, seven Dutch vessels which left an English 
port on promise of "relative security" from the Berlin authorities, 
were all attacked by German U-boats and six of them were sunk. 
Germany has admitted that its boats did the deed, and has ex- 
pressed "regrets" to Holland, although adding blandly "the 
incident proves how dangerous it is to navigate the prohibited 
zone, and gives expression to our wish that neutral navigators 
remain in their ports." As a result of this policy of terrorism, 
the ships of Holland have been practically driven off the seas. 
Many of them have taken refuge in the harbors of the United 
States. 

Spaniards have been exasperated by the destruction of their 
vessels, the most recent instance being that of a Spanish ship, 
with a Spanish cargo, sunk in Spanish waters. Swedish over-sea 
commerce is practically ruined by the fear of their owners at the 
indiscriminate ruthlessness of the submarine. 

The United States Government made an official estimate that 
by April 1, 1917, no less than 668 neutral vessels had been sunk 
by German submarines since the beginning of the war. This did 
not include any American vessels. {New York Times History of 
the War, May, 1917, pp. 241 and 244). 

The challenge is to all mankind. Each 
nation must decide for itself how it will meet 
it. 12 The choice we make for ourselves must 
be made with a moderation of counsel and a 
temperateness of judgment befitting our char- 
acter and our motives as a Nation. We must 
put excited feelings away. Our motive will 
not be revenge or the victorious assertion of 
the physical might of the Nation, but only 
the vindication of right, 13 of human right, of 
which we are only a single champion. 

12 Practically all the civilized neutral countries of the earth have 
protested at the German policy. Some, like Brazil, China, Bolivia, 
and Guatemala, have broken diplomatic relations with Germany. 

The neutral states of Europe, fearful of being caught in the horrors 
of the great war, have protested just as far as they have dared. 
Holland and Denmark may, of course, at any time see a German 
Army over their borders. Norway and Sweden are hardly in a safe 
position, but they have made their vehement protest at the German 
outrages. Spain, which had exercised a forbearance similar to that 
of the United States, has finally, after futile protests, been obliged 
(May 18, 1917) to send Germany a note in the nature of an ulti- 
matum, demanding reparation for the past and guaranties for the 
future. 

13 Submarines are such exceptional instruments of warfare that it 
is held by authorities on international law that they ought never 
to submerge in neutral waters, otherwise it is impossible for a 
neutral to control them and be responsible for them as with ordinary 
visiting warships. 

Says Prof. Theodore S. Woolsey, of Yale, a very high authority: 
"I think there can be no doubt that the U-boat is to be regarded 
as a surface cruiser with no additional rights and privileges and with 
the same duties and liabilities. Hence in neutral waters it should 
not submerge. Submergence imperils neutrality by making the 
performance of neutral duties more arduous and the evasion of 
neutral rights easier." (American Journal of International Law, 
January, 1917, p. 139.) 

When I addressed the Congress on the 26th 
of February last I thought it would suffice to 
assert our neutral rights with arms, our right 



8 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAR MESSAGE. 



to use the seas against unlawful interference, 
our right to keep our people safe against unlaw- 
ful violence. But armed neutrality, it now 
now appears, is impracticable. 14 Because sub- 
marines are in effect outlaws, when used as the 
German submarines have been used against 
merchant shipping, it is impossible to defend 
ships against their attacks, as the law of nations 
has assumed that merchantmen would defend 
themselves against privateers or cruisers, visible 
craft giving chase upon the open sea. It is 
common prudence in such circumstances, grim 
necessity indeed, to endeavor to destroy them 
before they have shown their own intention. 
They must be dealt with upon sight, if dealt 
with at all. 

14 In 1798, on account of the attacks on our commerce by French 
cruisers and privateers, Congress empowered President John 
Adams to arm merchant vessels, to let them defend themselves, 
and to let our warships attack the offending French vessels. 

There were several really serious naval battles (especially when 
the U. S. S. Constellation took the French frigate L'Insurgente, 
1799), and international experts are of the opinion that very prob- 
ably an actual state of war existed. In any case the country was 
headed straight into war, and preparations were being made to 
raise a strong army with Washington again as commander, with 
Alexander Hamilton under him, while an alliance was being dis- 
cussed with England. Then at the last moment, Napoleon, who 
had just come to power, had the wisdom to offer terms President 
Adams could accept. The German Imperial Government had no 
such wisdom or restraint. 

The German Government denies the right of 
neutrals to use arms at all within the areas of 
the sea which it has proscribed even in the 
defense of rights which no modern publicist 
has ever before questioned 15 their right to 
defend. The intimation is conveyed that the 
armed guards which we have placed on our 
merchant ships will be treated as beyond the 
pale of law and subject to be dealt with as 
pirates would be. Armed neutrality is inef- 
fectual enough at best; in such circumstances 
and in the face of such pretensions it is worse 
than ineffectual; it is likely only to produce 
what it was meant to prevent ; it is practically 
certain to draw us into war without either the 
rights or the effectiveness of belligerents. There 
is one choice we can not make, we are incapable 
of making: we will not choose the path of sub- 
mission and suffer the most sacred rights of 
our nation and our people to be ignored or 
violated. 16 The wrongs against which we now 



array ourselves are no common wrongs; they 
cut to the very roots of human life. 

15 Before the outbreak of the war the following were the standing 
orders in the German Navy for dealing with even enemy merchant 
vessels, and if that was the case how much more consideration 
should be given to neutrals. The new German orders are a brazen 
contradiction of their own previous precepts. (German Prize 
Code, p. 75.) 

General orders of German Admiralty staff, Berlin, June 22, 1914. 
(Note date.) 

"If an armed merchant vessel of the enemy offers armed re- 
sistance, such resistance may be overcome with all means possible. 
The crew are to be taken prisoners of war. The passengers are to 
be left to go free unless it appears that they participated in the 
resistance." (German Prize Code, p. 68, par. 116.) 

"Before proceeding to the destruction of the (neutral) vessel 
(which has been seized for proper reason), the safety of all persons 
on board, and, so far as possible, their effects, is to be provided for. " 

Dr. Wehberg (great German authority on international law, 
quoted in American Journal of Int. Lavj, Oct. 1916, p. 871). 

"The enemy merchant ship has the right of defense against 
enemy attack, and this right it can exercise against 'visit' (i. e., 
being stopped and investigated ), for this indeed is the first act of 
capture. The attacked merchant ship can indeed itself seize the 
overpowered warship as a prize. " 

Andstill again — 

In Oxford, 1913, at a meeting of the Institute of International 
Law, at which the representatives of Germany, as well as of all other 
great nations, were present, it was decided as a firm principle: 

"Private vessels may not commit acts of hostility against the 
enemy; they may, however, defend themselves against the attack 
of any enemy vessel. " (American Journal of International Law, 
vol. 10, 1916, p. 868.) 

16 Right of American citizens to protection in their doings abroad 
and on the seas no less than at home. Decided by Supreme Court 
of United States. (Slaughter House Cases, 16 Wall., 36.) 

" Every citizen has the right to demand the care and protection 
of the United States when on the high seas or within the j urisdic- 
tion of a foreign Government. " 

See Cooley's Principles of Constitutional Law, third edition, page 
273 (standard authority). 

Obviously a Government which can not or will not protect its 
citizens against a policy of lawless murder is unworthy of respect 
abroad or obedience at home. The protection of the lives of the 
innocent and law-abiding is clearly the very first duty of a civil- 
ized state. 

With a profound sense of the solemn and 
even tragical character of the step I am taking 
and of the grave responsibilities which it in- 
volves, but in unhesitating obedience to what 
I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that 
the Congress declare the recent course of the 
Imperial German Government to be in fact 
nothing less than war against the Government 
and people of the United States; 17 that it for- 
mally accept the status of belligerent which has 
thus been thrust upon it; and that it take im- 
mediate steps not only to put the country in a 
more thorough state of defense, but also to 
exert all its power and employ all its resources 



president wilson's war message. 9 

to bring the Government of the German Empire A P r - 2:? - H R - 2008.... Extending minority enlistments in the 

Navv. 

to terms and end the War. 2:! H R 2 338.... Authorizing additional officers for Hydro- 
graphic Office. 

" Wars do not have to be declared in order to exist. The mere 2: , H ,, ._,,„„ . . Increasing age limit for officera in Naval 

commission of warlike or unfriendly acts commences them. Thus Reserve 

the first serious clash in the Mexican war took place April 24, 1846. 23 H R lm Amending naval appropriations act for the 

Congress "recognized " the state of war only on May 11 of that year. r enc jj n g j une> 1917, 

Already Gen. Taylor had fought two serious battles at Palo Alto May g H R 2 893.... Permitting foreign governments to enlist 

and Resaca de la Palma. thlir nat i ona i 3 rea iding in the United 

Many other like cases could bo cited; the most recent was the States 

outbreak of the war between Japan and Russia. In 1904 the 10 S . j. R e .,. i_>. . .Authorizing seizure of interned German 

Japanese attacked the Russian fleet before Port Arthur, and only ships 

several days after this battle was war "recognized." n n . R. 13 Army appropriation bill for the year end- 

If the acts of Germany were unfriendly war in the strictest sense ^„ j une jg^g 

existed when the President addressed Congress. 15. H. R. 2337 .... Enrollments of aliens in the Naval Reserve. 

.,, . . . . T .... 16. H. R. 3330 Increasing Navy and Marine Corps to 

What this will involve is clear. It will in- 150,000 men. 

volve the utmost practicable cooperation in is. s. 1871 Conscription mil 

counsel and action with the Governments now Billsin conference on May 17: 

.,1 ,-, „ j -j , . 4.1 „x Apr. 16. H. R. 11 Sundry civil appropriations for the year 

at war with Germany, and as incident to that, v end ^ ng June ^^ 

the extension to those Governments of the most 16. H. R. 10 Military Academy appropriations for the 

liberal financial credits, in order that our re- „ a year ending June, 1918. 

e -ui u jj jx j-u • May 15. S. 2 Espionage bill. 

sources may so far as possible be added to theus. mUa awaiting action of one Houae: 

It Will involve the Organization and mobili- S 383 Passed Senate Apr. 9, punishing the destruction of 

zation of all the material resources of the coun- ™ material. 

, ,, ■ 1 e j j.l H. R. 328 Passed House May 9, car shortage. 

try to supply the materials of war and serve the n R 3971 Passed Ho use M ay 2, special war appropriation bin. 

incidental needs of the Nation in the most abun- 
dant and yet the most economical and efficient I say sustained so far as may be equitable by 
way possible. - taxation, because it seems to me that it would 

It will involve the immediate full equipment be most unwise to base the credits, which will 

of the Navy in all respects, but particularly in now be necessary, entirely on money borrowed, 

supplying it with the best means of dealing with It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to pro- 

the enemy's submarines. tect our people, so far as we may, against the 

It will involve the immediate addition to the very serious hardships and evils which would 

armed forces of the United States, 17 already be likely to arise out of the inflation which 

provided for by law in case of war, of at least would be produced by vast loans. 

500,000 men, who should, in my opinion, be In carrying out the measures by which these 

chosen upon the principle of universal liability things are to be accomplished we should keep 

to service, and also the authorization of subse- constantly in mind the wisdom of interfering 

quent additional increments of equal force so as little as possible in our own preparation and 

soon as they may be needed and can be handled in the equipment of our own military forces 

in training. with the duty — for it will be a very practical 

It will involve also, of course, the granting of duty — of supplying the nations already at war 

adequate credits 18 to the Government, sus- with Germany with the materials which they 

tained, I hope, so far as they can equitably be can obtain only from us or by our assiatance. 

sustained by the present generation, by well- They are in the field, and we should help them 

conceived taxation. in every way to be effective there. 19 

18 Bills passed by Congress, with dates on which they were pre- i» To anyone who will reflect upon the subject, it will soon appear 

sented to President: to be preposterous folly to suggest that we 'go it alone" against 

Apr. 5. S.J. Res. 1 . . . Declaration of war. Germany, and to fail to give all possible aid to her original enemies. 

17. H. R. 12 Deficiency appropriation bill for the year Obviously unless we send munitions, troops, submarine chasers, 

ending June, 1917. etc., to France, England, and possibly Russia, since the German 

23. H. R. 2762 Bond-issue bill. high-sea fleet does not at present come out, the war for us will mean 

23. H. R. 2339 Increasing number of midshipmen at An- little more than calling names across the Atlantic— until the Eu- 

napolis. ropean war is ended, and then if Germany has a pound of strength 



10 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAR MESSAGE. 



left (and very possibly she might be victorious) she can vent on us 
all her hate and fury, and exact from us the indemnities she can 
not wring from a bankrupt Europe. 

So obvious is the military necessity of giving every possible help 
to the present enemies of Germany that those who try to thwart 
this are almost open to the very grave criminal charge of giving aid 
and comfort to the enemies of the United States. 

I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through 
the several executive departments of the Gov- 
ernment, for the consideration of your commit- 
tees, measures for the accomplishment of the 
several objects I have mentioned. I hope that 
it will be your pleasure to deal with them as 
having been framed after very careful thought 
by the branch of the Government upon whom 
the responsibility of conducting the war and 
safeguarding the Nation will most directly fall. 

While we do these things, these deeply momen- 
tous things, let us be very clear, and make 
very clear to all the world, what our motives 
and our objects are. My own thought has not 
driven from its habitual and normal course 
by the unhappy events of the last two months, 
and I do not believe that the thought of the 
Nation has been altered or clouded bj' them. 
I have exactly the same things in mind now 
that I had in mind when I addressed the Senate 
on the 22d of January last; the same that I 
had in mind when I addressed Congress on the 
3d of February and on the 26th of February. 20 
Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the 
principles of peace and justice in the life of the 
world as against selfish and autocratic power, 
and to set up among the really free and self- 
governed peoples of the world such a concert 
of purpose and of action as will henceforth 
insure the observance of those principles. 

20 On January 22 Mr. Wilson spoke in favor of a league to secure 
peace. On February 3 he announced he had broken diplomatic 
relations with Germany, but expressed the earnest hope that issues 
would not proceed to a clash of arms. On February 26 he asked 
for "armed neutrality," but still avoided an actual state of war. 

Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable 
where the peace of the world is involved and 
the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to 
that peace and freedom lies in the existence 
of autocratic governments, 21 backed by organ- 
ized force which is controlled wholly by their 
will, not by the will of their people. We have 
seen the last of neutrality in such circum- 
stances. We are at the beginning of an age 



in which it will be insisted that the same stand- 
ards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong 
done shall be observed among nations and their 
governments that are observed among the indi- 
vidual citizens of civilized states. 22 

21 Contrast these two standards: Bethmann-Hollweg addressing the 
Reichstag, August 4, 1914. 

"We are now in a state of necessity and necessity knows no law. 
Our troops have occupied (neutral) Luxemburg and perhaps already 
have entered Belgium territory. Gentlemen, this is a breach of 
international law. The wrong — I speak openly — the wrong we 
hereby commit we will try to make good as soon as our military 
aims have been attained. 

"He who is menaced as we are, and is fighting for his highest 
possession, can only consider how he is to hack his way through. " 

Or Frederick the Great again, the arch prophet of Prussianism, 
speaking in 1740 and giving the keynote to all his successors, "The 
question of right is an affair of ministers. * * * It is time to 
consider it in secret, for the orders to my troops have been given," 
and still, again, "Take what you can; you are never wrong unless 
you are obliged to give back." (Perkins, France under Louis XV, 
vol. 1, pp. 169-170.) 

Against this set the words of the first President of the young 
American Republic, speaking at a time when the Nation was so 
weak that surely any kind of shifts could have been justified on 
the score of necessity. 

Said George Washington in his first inaugural address (1789): 
"The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure 
and immutable principles of private morality. There exists in 
the course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and 
happiness, between duty and advantage, between honest policy 
and public felicity" [and] "the propitious smiles of heaven can 
never be expected on a union [or government] that disregards the 
eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained." 

The present war is for a large part being waged to settle whether 
the American or the Prussian standard of morality is valid. 

22 The autocratic spirit of the German Emperor is clearly revealed 
in his own utterances (cf. p. 11). The Imperial Government is 
in form a government by the Emperor and the Imperial Diet. 
The dominant factor in the latter is the Federal Council (Bundes- 
rat), appointed by the kings and princes. Here as King of Prussia, 
William II, can make or break any policy. Prussia is the con- 
trolling factor political, economic, and military in modern Germany. 
In area it constitutes two-thirds of Germany, and five-eighths of its 
population and two-thirds of the members of the lower house of the 
German Congress are Prussians. Within Prussia there is little 
limit on the power of William II. In a constitution which his 
great uncle "decreed" in 1850 the rights of the King and of the 
"Junkers" (the feudal military nobles east of the Elbe) are care- 
fully guarded. 

The constitution of Prussia has remained practically unchanged 
and the electorial districts and three class voting system of nearly 70 
years ago still exist. Liberal industrial and socialistic elements 
in the great modern cities and manufacturing areas are without 
adequate representation in the Prussian Diet, and the old country 
districts are practically "rotten boroughs" where the peasant who 
votes by voice, not written ballot, is at the mercy of his feudal 
noble landlord. It is the latter who back the throne and its auto- 
cratic power so long as the policy suits their narrow provincial 
militaristic views formed in the days of Frederick the Great and his 
despotic father and revived and glorified by Bismarck. 

We have no quarrel with the German people. 
We have no feeling toward them but one of 
sympathy and friendship. It was not upon 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAR MESSAGE. 



11 



their impulse that their government acted in 
entering the war. 23 It was not with their 
previous knowledge or approval. 24 It was a 
war determined upon as wars vised to be 
determined upon in the old unhappy days, 
when peoples were nowhere consulted by then- 
rulers and wars were provoked and waged in 
the interest of dynasties 25 or of little groups of 
ambitious men who were accustomed to use 
their fellow men as pawns and tools. 

23 When the crisis was precipitated late in July, 1914, there was a 
strong peace-party in Germany, and earnest protests were made 
against letting Austrian aggression against Serbia start a world 
conflagration. In Berlin on July 29, 28 mass meetings were held 
to denounce the proposed war, and one of them is said to have been 
attended by 70,000 men. The Vorwaerts (the great organ of the 
socialists) declared on that day, "the indications proved beyond a 
doubt that the camarilla of war lords is working with absolutely 
unscrupulous means to carry out their fearful designs to precipitate 
an international war and to start a world-wide fire to devastate 
Europe." On the 31st this same paper asserted that the policy of 
the German Government was "utterly without conscience." Then 
came the declaration of "war emergency" {Kritgsgefdhr), mobiliza- 
tion, martial law, and any expression of public opinion was stilled 
in Germany. 

24 The German people had not the slightest share in shaping the 
events which led up to the declaration of war. The German 
Emperor is clothed by the imperial constitution with practically 
autocratic power in all matters of foreign policy. The Reichstag 
has not even a consultative voice in such matters. The German 
constitution (art. 11) gives to the Emperor specific power to "de- 
clare war, conclude peace, and enter into alliances." The pro- 
vision that only defensive wars may be declared by the Emperor 
alone puts the power in his hands to declare this and any other 
war without consulting any but the military group, for no power 
in modern times hag ever admitted that it waged aggressive warfare. 
William II declared this war without taking his people into the 
slightest confidence until the final deed was done. 

The whole tendency of responsible German statesmen has been 
to ignore the people in foreign affairs. The retired chancellor, 
Prince von Bulow, defended this policy bluntly on the ground that 
the Germans were not capable of self-government, saying "We are 
not a political people." 

As for William II, speeches without number can be cited to show 
his sense of his own autocratic authority — e. g., speaking at Konigs- 
berg, in 1910 — "Looking upon myself as the instrument of the Lord, 
regardlessof the views and the opinions of the hour, Igoonmy way." 
And another time: "There is but one master in this country; it is I, 
and I will bear no other." He has also been very fond of trans- 
forming an old Latin adage, making it read: "The will of the king 
is the highest law." 

25 President Wilson probably had in mind such wars as those of 
Louis XIV, waged by that King almost solely for his own glory and 
interest and with extremely little heed to the small benefit and 
great suffering they brought to France. The War of the Spanish 
Succession (begun in 1701) was particularly such a war. History, of 
course, contains a great many others begun from no worthier motive, 
including several conducted by Prussia and earlier by Philip II of 
Spain. 

Self-governed nations do not fill their neigh- 
bor States with spies or set the course of in- 
trigue to bring about some critical posture of 



affairs which will give them an opportunity to 
strike and make conquest. 28 Such designs can 
be successfully worked out only under cover and 
where no one has the right to ask questions. 
Cunningly contrived plans of deception or ag- 
gression, carried, it may be from generation to 
generation, can be worked out and kept from 
the light only within the privacy of courts or 
behind the carefully guarded confidences of a 
narrow and privileged class. They are happily 
impossible where public opinion commands 
and insists upon full information concerning 
all the nation's affairs. 

m There is abundant evidence that the situation in Europe in 
July, 1914, was regarded by the German "jingo" party — Von 
Tirpitz, Bernhardi, et al. — as peculiarly favorable. Russia was 
busy rearming her army, and her railway system had not yet been 
properly developed for strategic purposes. France was vexed with 
labor troubles, a murder trial was heaping scandal upon one of her 
most famous statesmen, and her army was reported by her own 
statesmen as sadly unready. England seemed on the point of 
being plunged into a civil war by the revolt of a large fraction of 
Ireland. 

Such a convenient crippling of all the three great rivals of Ger- 
many might never come again. The murder of the arch-duke of 
Austria at Serajevo came, therefore, as a most convenient occasion 
for a stroke which would either result in great increase of Teutonic 
prestige or enable Germany to fight with every possible advantage. 

There is official Italian evidence that Serbia would have been 
attacked by the Teutonic powers in August, 1913, if Italy had 
consented to help the scheme. Her refusal made the Austro- 
German warlords wait until July, 1914, when they felt the situation 
favorable enough to be able to strike without awaiting for the aid 
of Italy. (Signor Giolitti, in Italian Parliament, Dec. 5, 1914.) 

A steadfast concert for peace can never be 
maintained except by a partnership of demo- 
cratic nations. 27 No autocratic Government 
could be trusted to keep faith within it or ob- 
serve its covenants. It must be a league of 
honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue 
would eat its vitals away; the plottings of in- 
ner circles who could plan what they would, 
and render account to no one, would be a cor- 
ruption seated at its very heart. Only free 
people can hold their purpose and their honor 
steady to a common end, and prefer the 
interests of mankind to any narrow interest 
of their own. 28 

27 The willingness of Prussian rulers to precipitate war and to 
throw aside ordinary considerations for peace is best illustrated, of 
course, by the famous "Ems incident" of 1870. 

At that time Bismarck had decided that the quickest way to 
promote German unity and serve his political schemes was to pre- 
cipitate a war with France. The inflamed state of public opinion 
in France against Prussia made the task easy for him. On July 13, 
1870, he received a telegram from King William I, telling of an 
interview he had had with the French ambassador, about a very 



12 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAR MESSAGE. 



ticklish matter, and leaving it to Bismarck to decide what facts 
it was wise to give to the press. 

Bismarck, after consulting Von Moltke as to the state of the 
army, deliberately cut down and sharpened the wording of the 
telegram, very moderately phrased, from the King so as to make it 
appear that a deliberate insult had been offered the French am- 
bassador, and then gave out this text of the dispatch for publica- 
tion. This so enraged Paris public opinion, that war was imme- 
diately declared. 

Bismarck took great pride in this stroke, and the facts are related 
in all the standard German histories, as well as many others which 
copy them. 

Bismarck always regarded the manner in which he precipitated 
this war as a masterpiece of statecraft. It remained a kind of 
glorious example of true public policy for the next generation of 
public men in Germany. (See the account by Bismarck himself 
in his memoirs translated as Bismarck; The Man and the Statesman. 

28 The great humanitarian aims of The Hague peace conferences 
of 1899 and 1907 were the limitation of armaments and the com- 
pulsory arbitration of international disputes. Unanimity among 
the world powers was essential to the success of both. None dared 
disarm unless all would do so. The great democracies, Great 
Britain, France, and the United States, favored both propositions, 
but Germany, leading the opposition, prevented their adoption. 
She agreed with reluctance to a convention for optional arbitration, 
but refused at the second conference even to discuss disarmament. 
[See Scott, James Brown, The Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 
1907, I, index "Armaments" and "Arbitration."] 

Does not every American feel that assurance 
has been added to our hope for the future peace 
of the world by the wonderful and heartening 
things that have been happening within the last 
few weeks in Russia? Russia was known by 
those who knew her best to have been always 
in fact democratic at heart in all the vital habits 
of her thought, in all the intimate relation- 
ships of her people that spoke their natural 
instinct, their habitual attitude toward life. 
The autocracy that crowned the summit of her 
political structure, long as it had stood and 
terrible as was the reality of its power, was not 
in fact Russian in origin, character, or purpose, 29 
and now it has been shaken off and the great 
generous Russian people have been added, in 
all their naive majesty and might, to the forces 
that are fighting for freedom in the world for 
justice, and for peace. Here is a fit partner for 
a league of honor. 

29 The whole autocratic regime has been imposed on a people 
whose instincts and institutions are fundamentally democratic. 
The deposed Romanoff dynasty began in an election among the 
nobles. Peter the Great and the more despotic of his successors 
created largely by imitation and adaptation of German bureaucracy 
the machinery with which they ruled. Underneath this un-Rus- 
sian machinery of despotism Russian communal and local life has 
preserved itself with wonderful vitality. 



During the Russian revolution of 1905-6 it was perfectly evident 
that the German Government was doing its uttermost to help the 
Czar and the old regime. The passage of revolutionary exiles into 
Germany was constantly hindered; many were arrested by the 
Prussian police, and all who succeeded in entering Germany were 
kept under constant espionage. 

The Czar and the Kaiser were hand in glove to a large extent 
before the war broke out. The German White Paper, which was 
published at the outbreak of the war, containing telegrams which 
passed personally between Nicholas II and Wilhelm II, gives re- 
peated appeals from one to the other as representatives of a common 
interest. 

One of the things that have served to con- 
vince us that the Prussian autocracy was not 
and could never be our friend is that from the 
very outset of the present war it has filled our 
unsuspecting communities, and even our offices 
of government, with spies and set criminal in- 
trigues everywhere afoot against our national 
unity of counsel, our peace within and with- 
out, our industries, and our commerce. 30 In- 
deed it is now evident that its spies were here 
even before the war begun and it is unhappily 
not a matter of conjecture, but a fact proven 
in our courts of justice, that the intrigues 
which have more than once come perilously 
near to disturbing the peace and dislocating 
the industries of the country, have been car- 
ried on at the instigation, with the support, and 
even under the personal directions of official 
agents of the Imperial Government accredited 
to the Government of the United States. 

30 Besides undoubtedly many matters which from reasons of 
public policy the Government has still kept hidden, the House of 
Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs when it presented 
the war resolution following the President's message, went on 
formal record as listing at least 21 crimes or unfriendly acts com- 
mitted upon our soil with the connivance of the German Govern- 
ment since the European war began. Among these were: 

Inciting Hindoos within the United States to stir up revolts in 
India, and supplying them with funds for that end, contrary to our 
neutrality laws. 

Running a fraudulent passport office for German reservists. This 
was supervised by Capt. von Papen of the German Embassy. 

Sending German agents to England to act as spies, equipped 
with American passports. 

Outfitting steamers to supply German raiders, and sending them 
out of American ports in defiance of our laws. 

Sending an agent from the United States to try to blow up the 
International Bridge, at Vanceboro, Me. 

Furnishing funds to agents to blow up factories in Canada. 

Five different conspiracies, some partly successful, to manu- 
facture and place bombs on ships leaving United States ports. For 
these crimes a number of persons have been convicted, also Consul- 
General Bopp, of San Francisco (a very high German official 
accredited to the United States Government), has been convicted 
of plotting to cause bridges and tunnels to be destroyed in Canada. 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAR MESSAGE. 



13 



Financing newspapers in this country to conduct a propaganda 
serviceable to the ends of the German Government . 

Stirring up anti-American sentiment in Mexico and disorders 
generally in that country, to make it impossible for the United 
States to mix in European affairs. 

fN. B. — This last, from a humanitarian standpoint, seems 
peculiarly outrageous. Germany had not the slightest grievance 
against the helpless Mexicans. To incite them to revolt against 
their own Government and to make war on the United States 
simply involved their misery and probable destruction, in return 
for a very doubtful and roundabout gain for Germany. The 
greatest wrong was not to the United States but to Mexico.] 

German military usage has been quite in this spirit, however, and 
approves of such doings. (See German War Code, standard trans- 
lation, p. 85.) 

''Bribery of enemies' subjects, acceptance of offers of treachery, 
utilization of discontented elements in the population, support of 
pretenders and the like, are permissible; indeed, international law- 
is in no way opposed to the exploitation of crimes of third parties." 

This, of course, is an outrageous travesty of international law. 
Aa Holland {Laws of War on Land, p. 61) said, speaking of such 
acts. The Hague conference "declined to add to the authority of a 
practice so repulsive" by legislating upon the subject. What 
would the German people say of America, if our Government hired 
assassins to murder Kaiser Wilhelm or Von Hindenburg? 

Even in checking these things and trying to 
extirpate when we have sought to put the most 
generous interpretation possible upon them be- 
cause we knew that their source lay not in any 
hostile feeling or purpose of the German people 
toward us (who were, no doubt, as ignorant of 
them as we ourselves were), but only in the 
selfish designs of a Government that did what it 
pleased and told its people nothing. But they 
have played their part in serving to convince 
us at last that that Government entertains no 
real friendship for us, and means to act against 
our peace and security at its convenience. 31 
That it means to stir up enemies against us at 
our very doors, the intercepted note to the 
German minister at Mexico City is eloquent 
evidence. 32 

31 A Prussianized Germany, triumphant in Europe and dominant 
on the seas, would find its occasion to strike down America in its 
isolation and make of us the over-seas tributary of a new Roman 
Empire. There can be no question that the future of democracy 
and of independent national life is hanging in the balance in this 
struggle. 

32 The famous "Zimmermann note, " exposed by our Government 
March 1, is a document that should stick in the memories of all 
Americans. Remember, it was composed on January 19, 1917, 
at a time when Germany and America were officially very good 
friends, and the date was just three days before Mr. Wilson appeared 
in the Senate with his scheme for a league to assure peace and 
justice to the world. 

Zimmermann admitted the authenticity of the note, and only 
deplored that it had been discovered. The significant parts were 
these: 

"Berlin, January 19, 1917. 

"On February 1 we intend to begin submarine warfare unre- 
stricted. In spite of thiH, it is our intention to keep neutral the 
United States of America. 



"If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance on the 
following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and 
together make peace. We shall give general financial support, and 
it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in 
New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The details are left to you for 
settlement." 

The rest of the dispatch tells the German minister in Mexico to 
open secret negotiations with Oarranza the moment war with us is 
certain, and to get Carranza to draw in Japan. 

Germany has attempted to apologize for this note by saying that 
they did not intend to do anything unless we first declared \\ ar. 
It is a complete retort that decent nations do not go around 
preparing schemes for the dismemberment of other nations with 
which they are at peace, and that Zimmermann's whole proposal 
sprang out of an evil conscience, because he realized that the sub- 
marine policy projected was so vile that the United States could 
not submit to it without utter loss of self-respect, and he did us 
the justice of believing we were not such extreme cravens as to 
refuse to fight. 

The whole dispatch was so gross a revelation of international 
immorality that German-American papers immediately denounced 
it as a forgery, only to have its genuineness brazenly acknowledged 
and defended by Berlin. 

We are accepting this challenge of hostile 
purpose because we know that in such a 
Government, following such methods, we can 
never have a friend; and that in the presence 
of its organized power, always lying in wait 
to accomplish we know not what purpose, 
there can be no assured security for the 
democratic Governments of the world. 33 We 
are now about to accept the gage of battle 
with the natural foe to liberty, and shall, if 
necessary, spend the w T hole force of the nation 
to check and nullify its pretensions and its 
power. We are glad now that we see the 
facts with no veil of false pretense about them, 
to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world 
and for the liberation of its peoples, the Ger- 
man peoples included ; for the rights of nations, 
great and small, and the privilege of men 
everywhere to choose their way of life and 
of obedience. 

33 It is worthy of note that although nearly all the nations opposed 
to Germany concluded the so-called "cooling off" arbitration 
treaties with the United States, negotiated by Mr. Bryan, Germany, 
although indulging in certain meaningless talk about "approving 
the principle " of arbitration, etc., declined to join in the compacts. 

There was no arbitration treaty that could be invoked when 
trouble arose with Germany. 

On March 30, 1911, the German imperial chancellor had stated 
openly in the Reichstag that no general arbitration treaty would be 
useful for Germany, since it afforded no guarantee for a permanent 
peace. If conditions changed, from the time it was made, he said, 
then, "every arbitration treaty will burn like tinder and end in 
smoke." (Quoted in Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War, p. 33.) 

The world must be made safe for democracy. 
Its peace must be planted upon the tested 
foundations of political liberty. We have no 



14 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAR MESSAGE. 



selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, 
no dominion. We seek no indemnities for 
ourselves, no material compensation for the 
sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but 
one of the champions of the rights of mankind. 
We shall be satisfied when those rights have 
been made as secure as the faith and the 
freedom of nations can make them. 

Just because we fight without rancor and 
without selfish object, seeking nothing for 
ourselves but what we shall wish to share with 
all free people, we shall, I feel confident, con- 
duct our operations as belligerents without 
passion and ourselves observe with proud 
punctilio the principles of right and of fair 
play we profess to be fighting for. 34 

34 "Fair play " haa small part in the Prussian military usage, how- 
ever. (See German War Code, Introduction, par. 3; authorized 
translation, p. 52.) 

"A war conducted with energy can not be directed merely against 
the combatants of the enemy State, and the positions which they 
occupy, but will in like manner seek to destroy the total intellectual 
and material resources of the latter. Humanitarian claims, such 
as the protection of men and their goods, can only be taken into 
consideration in so far as the nature and object of the war permits." 

See also Clausewitz (the Prussian military authority and oft- 
quoted oracle). Treatise "On War" (Vom Kriege) V: Kap.14 (3). 

Speaking of the desirability of crushing down an hostile country 
by requisitions, etc., he commends it because of "the fear of re- 
sponsibility, punishment, and ill-treatment, which in such cases 
presses like a general weight on the whole population." This re- 
course (of requisitions) has "no limits except those of the exhaus- 
tion, impoverishment, and devastation of the country." 

By this Prussian gospel, not merely is war inevitably "hell," 
but it is to be made deliberately the lowest stratum of hell, and the 
means of rendering it such are to be worked out with scientific 
precision. 

I have said nothing of the Governments 
allied with the Imperial Government of Ger- 
many because they have not made war upon 
us or challenged us to defend our right and 
our honor. The Austro-Hungarian Govern- 
ment has, indeed, avowed its unqualified 
indorsement and acceptance of the reckless 
and lawless submarine warfare, 35 adopted now 
without disguise by the Imperial German 
Government, and it has therefore not been 
possible for this Government to receive Count 
Tarnowski, the ambassador recently accredited 
to this Government by the Imperial and Royal 
Government of Austria-Hungary; but that Gov- 
ernment has not actually engaged in warfare 
against citizens of the United States on the 
seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at 
least, of postponing a discussion of our relations 



with the authorities at Vienna. We enter 
this war only where we are clearly forced into 
it because there are no other means of defend- 
ing our rights. 

35 Austria had a serious clash with the United States in the An- 
cona case late in 1915, when Americans perished, thanks to the 
ruthless action of an Austrian submarine. In reply to American 
protests Austria promised to order her commanders to behave with 
humanity, and (compared, at least, to her German allies) she kept 
her word with reasonable exactness. 

On April 8, however, Austria, probably acting under German 
pressure, broke off diplomatic relations with the United States 
without waiting for action by our Government, and the same was 
done a little later by Germany's other obedient vassal, the Sultan 
of Turkey. 

It will be all the easier for us to conduct our- 
selves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and 
fairness because we act without animus, not 
with enmity toward a people or with the desire 
to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, 
but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible 
Government which has thrown aside all con- 
siderations of humanity and of right and is 
running amuck. 

We are, let me say again, the sincere friends 
of the German people 36 and shall desire noth- 
ing so much as the early reestablishment of 
intimate relations of mutual advantage between 
us, however hard it may be for them for the 
time being to believe that this is spoken from 
our hearts. We have borne with their present 
Government through all these bitter months 
because of that friendship, exercising a patience 
and forbearance which would otherwise have 
been impossible. 37 

38 There are now two Germanies — the old noble idealistic Germany ; 
the new hard, materialistic nation, created by Prussia. Americans 
would fain love and recall the former. 

Here is what two of their own writers said, men of leadership and 
insight, speaking very shortly before the war: 

Prof. Rein, of Jena: "A one-sidedness which only esteems material 
values and an increasing control over nature is destructive in its 
influence, and this one-sidedness set in during the nineteenth century 
in Germany. We Germans have ceased to be the nation of thinkers, 
poets, and dreamers, we aim now only at the domination and exploi- 
tation of nature." 

And again Prof. Paulsen, of Berlin: "Two souls dwell in the Ger- 
man Nation. The German Nation has been called the nation of 
poets and thinkers, and it may be proud of the name. To-day it 
may again be called the nation of masterful combatants, as which it 
originally appeared in history." 

37 No one can accuse Mr. Wilson of the least precipitancy in bring- 
ing matters to an issue. Of course, on the contrary, his persistent 
attempts to bring the German Government to recognize the claims 
of reason and humanity have caused him to be bitterly criticised. 
Despite this criticism he has patiently and steadily held to the 
policy announced a year ago, "to wait until facts became unmis- 



PRESIDENT WILSON S WAR MESSAGE. 



15 



takable and were susceptible of only one interpretation." (Sussex 
note, April 18, 1916.) 
Here is a partial list of the stages in the U-boat campaign: 

1. December 24, 1914. Admiral von Tirpitz throws out hints 
in a newspaper interview of a wholesale torpedoing policy. He 
directly asks, "What will America say?" This was considerably 
before the so-called English blockade was causing Germany any 
serious food problem. 

2. February 4, 1915. German Government proclaims a war zone 
within which any ship may be sunk unwarned. 

3. February 10, 1915. Mr. Wilson tells German Government it 
will be held to "strict accountability" if any American rights wrre 
violated in this way. 

4. April 22, 1916. German Embassy publishes in New York 
papers warning against taking passage on ships which our Govern- 
ment had told their people they had a perfect right to take. 

5. May 7, 1915. Sinking of Lusitania. 

6. May 13, 1915. Mr. Wilson's "first Lusitania" note. 

7. May 28, 1915. Germany's reply defending the sinking of the 
Lusitania. 

8. June 9, 1915. Mr. Wilson's "second Lusitania" note. 

9. July 21, 1915. Mr. Wilson's "third Lusitania" note (following 
more unsatisfactory German rejoinders). 

10. August 19, 1915. Sinking of the Arabic, whereupon Von 
Bemstorff gave an oral pledge for his Government that hereafter 
German submarines would not sink "liners" without warning. 

11. February, 1916. (After still more debatable sinkings) 
Germany makes proposals looking toward "assuming liability" for 
the Lusitania victims, but the whole case is soon complicated again 
by the "armed ship" issue. 

12. March 24, 1916. Sinking of the Sussex, passenger vessel with 
Americans on board. 

13. April 10, 1916. Germany cynically tells United States she 
can not be sure whether she sunk the Sussex or not, although ad- 
mitting one of her submarines was active close to the place of disaster. 

14. April 18, 1916. President Wilson threatens Germany with 
breach of diplomatic relations if Sussex and similar incidents are 
repeated. 

15. May 4, 1916. Germany grudgingly makes the promise that 
ships will not be sunk without warning. 

16. October 8, 1916. German submarine appears off American 
coast and sinks British passenger steamer Slephano with many 
American passengers (vacationists returning from Newfoundland) 
on board . Loss of life almost certain had not American men-of-war 
been on hand to pick up the refugees. 

[From this time until final break several other vessels sunk under 
circumstances which made it at least doubtful whether Germany 
was living up to her pledges.] 

17. January 31, 1917. Germany tears up her promises and notifies 
Mr. Wilson she will begin "unrestricted submarine war." 

18. February 3, 1917. Mr. Wilson gives Count Bemstorff his 
passports and recalls Ambassador Gerard from Berlin. 

In all modern history it may be doubted if there is another 
chapter displaying such prolonged patience, forbearance, and con- 
ciliatoriness as that shown by Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lansing in the 
face of a long course of deliberate evasion and prevarication to them 
personally, as well as outrage after outrage upon the property, and 
still more, upon the lives of very many American citizens. 

We shall happily still have an opportunity to 
prove that friendship in our daily attitude and 
actions toward the millions of men and women 
of German birth ** and native sympathy who 
live among us and share our life, and we shall 
be proud to prove it toward all who are in fact 
loyal to their neighbors and to the Government 
in the hour of test. They are most of them as 



true and loyal Americans as if they had never 
known any other fealty or allegiance. They 
will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and 
restraining the few who may be of a different 
mind and purpose. If there should be disloy- 
alty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of 
stern repression; M but if it lifts its head at all, 
it will lift it only here and there and without 
countenance except from a lawless and malig- 
nant few. 

38 On April 6, 1917, President Wilson issued a proclamation in 
which he asserted that "alien enemies" who preserved the peace, 
kept the laws, and gave no aid to the enemies of the United States 
' 'shall be undisturbed in the peaceful pursuit of their lives and occu- 
pations, and shall be accorded the consideration due to all peaceful 
and law-abiding persons, and toward such [persons] all citizens 
of the United States are enjoined to preserve the peace and to treat 
them with all such friendliness as may be compatible with loyalty 
and allegiance to the United States." 

In May the Attorney General issued a statement congratulating 
the country on the friendly relations between Americans and 
German residents, the absence of disorders, and the necessity of 
interning only a very small number of persons (about 125), an 
insignificant fraction of the whole number of German citizens in 
this country. 

At almost the same time the cables carried dispatches that the 
German police had ordered strict measures of oversight and re- 
straint for the few Americans remaining in Germany, although all 
such persons were probably people whose ties with Germany made 
them almost more at home there than in their nominal country. 

39 The treason statutes of the United States have seldom been 
invoked, but they exist and possess teeth. 

It is treason to "levy war against the United States, adhere to 
their enemies, or give them aid or comfort." (Ch. 1, sec. 1, Rev. 
Stat.) The penalty is death, or imprisonment for at least five 
years, and a fine of at least $10,000. 

It is "misprision of treason" to know of any treasonable plots 
or doings and fail to report the same to the authorities. The pen- 
alty is seven years imprisonment. The penalty for inciting a 
rebellion or insurrection is 10 years, and the crime of entering into 
any correspondence with a foreign government to influence it in 
any dispute with the United States, or to defeat any measures 
taken by our Government, calls for three years' imprisonment. 
(Ch. 1, sec. 5.) There is also a penalty of six years' imprisonment 
for any seditious conspiracy to oppose the authority of the United 
States. 

All these laws President Wilson has, by recent proclamation 
(Apr. 6, 1917), reminded the people are in full force. 

"Giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States" 
has been defined in the courts (30 Federal Cases, No. 18272), as — 

"In general, any act clearly indicating a want of loyalty to the 
Government and sympathy with its enemies, and which by fair 
construction is directly in furtherance of their hostile designs." 
Such deeds are, of course, liable to all the penalty of treason. 

In extreme cases also, of "rebellion and invasion" the Constitu- 
tion specifically gives the Government power to suspend the 
writ of habeas corpus (Constitution, Art. I, sec. 9, par. 2) ; in other 
words, to arrest and imprison on mere suspicion without trial, and 
this was actually done in the Civil War. 

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentle- 
men of the Congress, which I have performed 
in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, 



LIBRARY OF CONbREb 



16 



PRESIDENT WILSON 



many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead 
of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great, 
peaceful people into war, into the most terrible 
and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself 
seeming to be in the balance. 

But the right is more precious than peace, 
and we shall fight for the things which we have 
always carried nearest our hearts 40 — for de- 
mocracy, for the right of those who submit to 
authority to have a voice in their own Govern- 
ments, for the rights and liberties of small 
nations, for a universal dominion of right by 
such a concert of free people as shall bring 
peace and safety to all nations and make the 
world itself at last free. 

40 Abraham Lincoln (second inaugural address, 1865): 
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness 
in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work 
we are in — to bind up another's wounds, to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans; to do all 
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among 
ourselves and with all nations." 



S WAR MESSAGE. 

003 975 561 

Friedrich von Bernhardi (German lieutenant general, and ac- 
ceptable mouthpiece, not of the whole German nation, but of the 
Prussian military caste which holds the German nation in its 
grip): 

"Might is at once the supreme right, and the dispute as to what 
is right is decided by the arbitrament of war " (p. 23). 

["It is outrageous to presume that] a weak nation is to have the 
same right to live as a powerful and vigorous nation " (p. 34). 

"The inevitableness, the idealism, and the blessedness of war 
as indispensable and stimulating law of development must be re- 
peatedly emphasized " (p. 37). 

"Our people must learn to feel that the maintenance of peace 
never can or may be the goal of a policy" (p. 37, "Germany and 
the Next War"). 

Which of these two national viewpoints is to be allowed to domi- 
nate the world? 

To such a task we can dedicate our fives and 
our fortunes, everything that we are and every- 
thing that we have, with the pride of those 
who know that the day has come when America 
is privileged to spend her blood and her might 
for the principles that gave her birth and 
happiness and the peace which she has 
treasured. 

God helping her, she can do no other. 



i 



A COMPACT SUMMARY OF THE GRIEVANCES OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE NECESSITY OF WAR. 

Indictment of German policy by Mr. G. E. Foss, of Illinois, a distinguished Member of Congress (debate 
in House of Representatives, Apr. 6, 1917): 

"As a reward for our neutrality what have we received at the hands of William II ? 

" He has set the torch of the incendiary to our factories, our workshops, our ships, and our wharves. 

"He has laid the bomb of the assassin in our munition plants and the holds of our ships. 

"He has sought to corrupt our manhood with a selfish dream of peace when there is no peace. 

"He has willfully butchered our citizens on the high seas. 

"He has destroyed our commerce. 

"He seeks to terrorize us with his devilish policy of f rightfulness. 

"He has violated every canon of international decency and set at naught every solemn treaty and every 
precept of international law. 

"He has plunged the world into the maddest orgy of blood, rapine, and murder which history records. 

"He has intrigued against our peace at home and abroad. 

"He seeks to destroy our civilization. Patience is no longer a virtue, further endurance is cowardice, 
submission to Prussian demands is slavery." 

o 



